Sunday 29 July 2007

Lawers Village


I don't know when this place was last home to local occupants but suspect it was a long time ago. The village of Lawers is not on most folks maps and unless you know where it is you are very unlikely to discover it for yourself. The buildings are no more than piles of stones with tell tale evidence of windows and doorways, some extremely ornate for the age and area. The scattering of the ruins tells you there were never roads here, just a few meandering paths and a gated bridge. I gather that there have been thoughts in the past to restore the area as I am sure it would make a wonderful heritage site but here it lies, abandoned and overgrown, maybe this is how its meant to be, despite the decay and neglect there is a peace hanging over the area that seems to tell you it is happy just as it is. Does it hide a terrible past than caused its desertion, who knows ?



Saturday 21 July 2007

Glasgow Sunset


Its been one of those weeks, sunday morning all looked clear for a quiet one but what happened ?? work, stuff, more work and even more stuff and here we are its Saturday again..must take the batteries out of that big clock.

Still, its been a good one, monday eve did a Regular photo shoot for the old BBC in Glasgow, internal comms and press shots for a radio Scotland music series recording session - Davie Scott and co of the Pearlfishers was the artist, a great evenings entertainment. Sat outside after watching the sunset over the science centre, was one of those typical Scottish drab days with a stunning finish....



I once had a catch phrase...'I don't do wedding photography..' well am of this afternoon to do my third this week - something is going wrong ! But Last Saturdays was great, Tues was a small civil ceremony of a friend, and todays is on a paddle steamer on Loch Katrine so thats ok...isn't it !

Friday 13 July 2007

It all seemed a good idea at the time...

..hey, lets take some piccies of you driving your Cat (thats boys slang for Cateram 7 - as per Lotus 7, Very very cool Go Cart with engine, No 2 in The Prisoner etc etc )

Great, we have a friend in her 10 day old wee convertable Mini up for lunch (nice motor indeed), that'll be great for taking the shots from.

So, off we go, cruising through the hills on an open road, wind in hair, midges getting stuck on the teeth, me hanging out the back of mini...it was all going so well....but !!

Before I continue a few names, the driver of the Cat is Fred (name changed to protect the guilty/innocent ?) passenger is our very own... well..a respected individual from Purplecoombe - name withheld to protect the innocent, and the Mini Driver was Julie, name changed again to protect the guilty/innocent?



So, 5 miles down the road we pull into a pub car park much the entertainment of the local patrons, spin round and get set to head back to Purple Towers for a few more shots and a celebration drink..but..and its a BIG BUT......WHAM - both cars collide (details withheld to protect both guilty and innocent) - Cat now has bent front end and 10 day old Mini has new BMW restyled side panels....OUCH. Even more entertainment for said local patrons - the landlady was dangerously close to cracking a smile, or was that my imagination ?

So we limp home and the celebration drink becomes one of commiseration but everyone parted on amicable terms with a 'well, these things happen' attitude - as indeed they do.

Seeing the wood within the trees

Inspired by Purplecoo'er Cait I wanted to share my own woodlands in our own little corner of the Scottish Highlands. Although I grew up in a new town in Sussex we were never far from the countryside and spent many a happy time cycling down through Turners Hill and when feeling very fit the Bluebell Railway, an old preserved steam line running through some of Sussex's best countryside and to this day the smell of a coal fire brings back happy memories. Anyway, getting back to todays topic the woodlands in Sussex were to us youngsters magical places, full of great places to explore and although didn't realise at the time, connect with nature. As kids we then ventured to explore North Wales, a very different land with its mountains, sheep, dry stone walls, more sheep, much coarser vegetation, even more sheep, old stone ruins..and did I mention the sheep ?

So, we have now come to rest in Highland Perthshire, a very similar land to Wales with its Celtic history, rugged landscape...and ..yup... lots of sheep (maybe they are following me ?)

What is left of the old Caledonian Forests are stunning with their Scots pine and larch but sadly many were turned into Habitat furniture in the 70's and replaed with Norwegian varieties of Spruce for Ikea Furnature today. We live in the midst of one such managed forest which from a distance look uniform and somewhat uninviting but that depends on how you view the forest from within. This is how I see the wood amongst the trees..







Wednesday 11 July 2007

Breakfast time..

It gets rather busy at the wee fast food bird table joint in the mornings, and what appear to be cute fluffy (ok, feathery) creatures are if you watch them for a while all rather aggressive little monsters, buzzing and chasing each other away from the best perch and feed, just like unruly kids in the school canteen, there is indefinably a pecking order (literally). And the mess they create, well, at least our kids would if nagged enough clear up after themselves, these guys have no consideration at all. Still, thats a minor gripe considering the pleasure from having them as guests. And a few are getting rather brave this year, still feeding whilst we are sitting a few feet away and even venturing onto Gills arm for more treats.



Good job we don't have a cat !

Monday 9 July 2007

..got your number !!

Its great when a plan comes together, but even better when it doesn't but you get something better.

This is actually half of a pic I took of 3 band members standing on a bridge in Glasgow at night, they were all looking rather serious and cool as you do, but what made the pic was my fill in flash picking up the passing car, so we dive into photoshop, take out the guys and bridge etc etc (sorry guys, no offense) and bingo, a pic just as planned...ok....yea right !!

Who cares, planned or accident, its the result that counts..

Saturday 7 July 2007


Its been a while...


I had a plan to publish a picture of the day, thats every day but social domestic and business stuff has taken front of house.
This is an old pic taken inside an abandoned Crofters cottage in the highlands, apart from part of the roof having fallen in its all intact inside, even a few bits of furniture left behind, and a really fantastic old cooker/fire, its great that its not been ransacked (yet!) but that seems to be the way things are in this part of the world.
Reminds me of a talk I went to and the photographers book I have on Montanna, its called Ghosts in the Wilderness and its about all these fantastic old 60's Timber houses that were just left by their occupants back in the 70's, they left furniture, telephones, calenders on the wall and sometimes their cars and appart from dust and decay they are still preserved due to the dry climate.

Thursday 21 June 2007

Half past midnight light...



This is as dark as it gets this time of year - ok its taken with a 25 second exposure but its still bright !!

Saturday 26 May 2007

..so where is the new PurpleCoo ?



We have all been beavering away in the garden sheds in between all our other duties to build a new and better web site for us all, trips to BnQ for tins of colourful jpegs, timber planks 600 pixels wide x 400 megabits long and screws compliant with web code html version W0192887344.009 (they are so hard to find !). We have drafted in the expertise of architect Penguin P who is doing a great job trying to keep up with all the ideas we throw at him.

So, the new site will have a main common room posting area to replace the existing CCW post/chat/common room page and also the 'I have blogged' page. There is one aspect that we are not sure how will work, Today we all have our own blogspot page which folk can keep to save moving house again, or have their own new wizzy pad on the new site, or have both ! We want to have the benefit of one big building, but are aware that some might rather stay in their blog home that they have decorated and become settled in and might not wish to move everything - again.

Also planned is a Forum for threaded posts, photo gallery, and some skool notice boards for all sorts of fascinating info.

Some bits will be here at the opening and some will be finished on when the other builders get their van back out the ditch and sober up.

Please be patient, we wanted to let the existing site settle to see how the whole place works but feel the time is right to give the old haunt a decent facelift.

Ideas are always welcome but bear in mind resources are limited, if we do not act on ideas its more probable that we are busy building other bits or have run out of those damn web screws and the last new extension has just fallen down....again ! We are also looking for some form of backing or sponsorship to give the old place a decent future, but do not want to be controlled by a 'focused' commercially driven corporate enterprise.

Timescale - don't be daft, when was a building extension ever done on time.."sorry guv, the weather in Africa was the wrong sort of rain for the plumber to drive in" or "yeah, I know a said a week but didn't say which one, honestly, I do have 15 other unfinished jobs to laugh..sorry, worry about"

The architect says we should be getting the keys to take a look round in a week or so, we will keep you posted.

what I love about this new job is the diversity...



One day having fun with a great family, 2 days later being all creative and arty outdoors on a windy shore with a young lass wanting some model portfolio pics. For someone who has only been modeling for a few weeks she was great - planning a second shoot already.

Anyway in the midst of all this rather serious and creative stuff was an unexpacted side show, 2 lasses were hitting the bottle big time (and probably other mood enhancers) - right were we wanted to soot - no problem, we just toddle off to our other location then they will be gone when we get back - WRONG - there they are, now totally out of it but were crashed out round behind a wall so just ignore them. So, we start shooting and all sorts of coastguards, medics and then the police turn up following reports of drunks falling off castle walls ???? - but like tru pro's we just carried on while the poor brave services tried to move them on to the body menders (I would have left them get on with it, wot a waste of taxpayers money but don't get me started) - this has to be the most bizarre photo shoot I have ever done.
Now, in this pic are 2 lases in the archway - no competition needed to guess who was the model !



..and they call this work !




Did family photo shoot in the week but this time with a difference - actually advertised for a willing ..dare I say gunea pig family to spend half a day rather than cramming fun frollicks and creativity into a 1hour studio session... needless to day I had a laugh, so did the kids.. and the parents - thanks guys. The best bit was getting the kids to jump around and do all the things they are not normally allowed to do at home but the grown ups were so cool about it and from what they have seen love the pics so a small sacrifice... phew, got away with it again - they havnt seen the full set of pics yet so until then only a publishing a wee taster - wouldn't be fair now would it...

Monday 30 April 2007

..can I recomend a good camera ??

..probably yes but just to play the politician I will answer a question with a question... how much do you want to spend and what sort of use will it be for ?..(ok, thats 2 questions, politicians never do give you all the facts). There ar 3 types of camera (assuming digital), Compact, slr type and full slr's.
For taking good photos or being creative I would personally recommend a Digi SLR, will be a tad more cash and heavier than a compact but maybe worth the extra.
In the middle are semi slr's (bridge cameras) like the Fuji Finepix6000 / Nikon Coolpix 8700 / Sony DCS-H9, a bit smaller and lighter than an slr, pic quality still excellent but uses a small lcd screen to view rather than real optics. These have fixed lenses whereas slrs' have more choices of lenses than money allows so extends the life for change of photo style - these cost about £300 upwards (sorry, prices uk biased) but are excellent
Slr's - entry level you can get a Nikon D40 / Canon 400D for about £500 inc lens, moving up you can get a Nikon D80 or D200, Canon 20D / 5D or a Fuji S5Pro - all really pro quality but maybe without the tank style build quality of the top end toys (popular with pros as a backup/second camera).
So what make is best - really nothing in it today, Nikon and Canon seem to rule the roost but Fuji, Olympus and Sony etc all more than worthy as are Samsung, panasonic etc etc etc, its really down to personal taste.
Confused ?? well to make things worse take a look at http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs.asp
for a side-by-side of almost every camera on sale today (and many that are now discontinued).
What features are wrth considering ?
A good solid easy to handle camera is best, stuff like movie recording is bit of a toy but if its got it great. Hot shoe for a camera top flash is a good idea and screw hole for tripod mount essential!. In Compacts and semi slr forget 'Digital zoom' figures, this is a marketing conn, only look at optical zoom. In short cameras with less domestic features the more likely to be aimed at enthusiasts and semi pro use.

Finally that horrible ..how many megapixels do I need question...yuk!! well in truth not as many as you would think. A 6Mp camera can produce fantastic quality prints up to and beyond A3 - trust me ! (4 mp is about the lowest I would suggest), what really counts is the lens quality as a 6mp slr with an average lens is likely to produce better pics than a 12mp compact ! Also range of capture options like RAW and TIFF, RAW is king, worth having in favour of a bucket full of user settings and sad blingy type features that you never use.

Hope this helps..

Where in the world ..??




Our view a couple of weeks ago... in the UK....Scotland....Highlands...Ben Nevis.... at the summit on one fantastic spring day.
I had this crazy notion to walk.climb/drag myself up the 3 peaks, thats Snowdon (highest peak in Wales), then Scaffel (biggest lump of rock in England), then finished off with Ben Nevis ('The Ben' as its affectionately know up 'ere).
Problem was I told my son so he held me to it but am real glad he did - most nutters do all 3 within 24 hours but we had more sense and did it within 3 days - awsome !!

Wednesday 25 April 2007

hmm.. almost forgot I had my own blog page...

... set this up to play and test stuff before breaking something that gets hit by the masses. As for the lovable Arnie (aka, that bloody pest, the runt, GILL's DOG....) we have had a hate hate relationship for years so taking the stupid little things picture is no more than therapy - honest...!!

Sunday 22 April 2007

New post by email .... ??

Let see if this works, test to create a posting by email...

Its Sunday...again


.. it seems to happen every week, but have checked my diary today and yup, its the first day of the rest of my life so time to do stuff. Sunday is a day of rest, whenever I ask wify to rest she bloggs away so that's it - resting IS blogging so Sunday is the day of blog....
First pic of many more - this one is a favourite, just like all the rest.